Blame Bill Gates for the dominance of Times New Roman. Designed in the 1930s and intended for use in newspapers, TNR was the default serif typeface installed on all Windows operating systems. Although Microsoft later tried to make amends by commissioning vastly superior PC and web-friendly typefaces such as Georgia, Verdana and Trebuchet, the damage was done. Times (and Arial) became everyone's idea of what a typeface should look like, and were often selected for jobs for which they were completely unsuited. Along with the hideous Comic Sans, they helped create a world of clunky and unattractive documents and websites.

Here's a list of ten reliable, elegant and functional text typefaces worth considering: Garamond, Adobe Caslon, Arno Pro, Cheltenham, Dante, Electra, Fairfield, Adobe Jenson, Minion Pro and Warnock Pro. Each of these typefaces has a subtly different form and is particularly appropriate for certain kinds of content, different eras and design sensibilities. Arno Pro and Minion Pro have a robust unadorned style that makes them ideal for large blocks of information at smaller sizes. Fairfield is rather more delicate and rarified, and slightly more difficult to read. New Baskerville has a more classical, pre-nineteenth century feel, along with Caslon. Warnock includes both classical and modern typefaces elements: a true transitional typeface. An interesting discussion on the subject of book typefaces can be found here.